Any tips on Python web development on Mac OS

[Jeff]

On Aug 5, 4:41 am, Tim Greening-Jackson <zen167520_AT_zen_co_uk>
wrote:
> Hi there.
>
> I've recently learned Python -- but would by no means describe myself as
> expert -- and have a couple of "pet" projects I want to do in my spare
> time in order to consolidate what I've learned by using it to solve
> "real" problems.
>
> I'd like to create a couple of websites on my Mac at home. I have a very
> basic understanding of HTML, but am lazy and would prefer to do the work
> either in Python itself or have some package I can use in conjunction
> with Python.
>
> So I need some sort of tool which can help me design the "look and feel"
> of the website, together with something that will help me generate the
> content. So I can produce the template for the pages (i.e. put this
> button/text here, and on rollover it changes colour and on click it goes
> to...) and also do "smart" things like take user feedback etc. etc.
>
> I've had a very quick look at the Django and Turbogears websites. Is it
> worth learning one of these for a small, simple site? Will they actually
> help me set up the structure of the site, or are they more geared to its
> content.
>
> I've also seen an open-source package for the Mac called Locomotive, but
> this appears to be a framework for Ruby on Rails and I don't want to
> learn Ruby.
>
> I'm also trying to find/download HTMLgen. If I try to install the
> version from macports it tries to downgrade my installation of Python to
> one of the previous versions. Is it worth using and where can I find a
> copy that I should be able to build/install cleanly on a Mac.
>
> I'm running:
>
> Python 2.5 (r25:51918, Sep 19 2006, 08:49:13)
> [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5341)] on darwin
>
> on an elderly iMac G5 which runs Mac OS X 10.5.4 (9E17)
>
> Any tips, pointers etc. would be gratefully received.
>
> T.

Django is nice for home development since it includes a development
server.  As far as the layout is concerned, learning some basic HTML
and CSS is not difficult.  You don't need to be an expert at CSS to
make a good-looking website.  Simple is often as not better with mark-
up.  The nuisance is finding a good Python host on the cheap :)